of his A power, or how he was born, or how he is equal with the Father—that indivisible power!"—they will say to you: "Have you not heard the prophet saying: *Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights; praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his powers, his ministers who do his will* (Ps. 148: 1-2)? We have been commanded to do his will, not to pry into his nature." But perhaps if the angels are silent, and the prophets do not declare, and the apostles keep it a mystery, does the Father who begat the Son proclaim how he begat him? Not even he; not because he does not know, but because he does not reveal it. That he begat, he says: *From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten you* (Ps. 109: 3). He says that he begat, and he does not hide that immortal offspring which blossomed from the eternal root, as the Father testifies regarding him, saying: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased* (Matt. 3: 17). To him he says: *From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten you*; to the world he says: "I have begotten," and he announces the nature, but he does not explain the manner. Since, therefore, the necessary inquiry regarding Christ is set before us, let us not wander from the apostolic and prophetic fountains; but let us draw the divine waters of inspired teaching from those perennial streams and immortal rivers. For when anyone speaks the things of God, he draws living waters from the things of God as if from a living fountain, according to what was said: *They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water* (Jer. 2: 13); and again, *Drink water from the fountains of your Savior* (Isa. 12: 3). If, however, abandoning the Scriptures, we serve the desires of human reasoning—thinking those things which B our own reasoning suggests—our waters of doctrine are found to be waters of the desert; not of a living river, but of a desert, just as the blessed Jeremiah said to Jerusalem: *She widened her ways unto the waters of the desert* (Jer. 2: 24). And to interpret what he says, he adds: *In the desires of her soul she was carried away*; that is, she spoke those things which her soul desired, not what God willed. Thus also now, he who fulfills the desires of his own reasoning, and does not seek the things of God, wanders to the waters of the desert. Nothing so destroys the beauty of the Church as holding to the desires of human reasoning. For this reason Paul said concerning heretics: *According to their own desires they shall heap up for themselves teachers* (2 Tim. 4: 3). Let us come, therefore, to what is owed. We have necessarily prefaced this for your charity, so that you might seek an accurate examination of all that is said, not from us or from our own reasoning, but from the divine Scriptures. It was set before us to show how Christ renews the world, how Christ renews man, who had grown old in paradise because of sin, through his own dispensation.
2. We have made this promise in the sacred halls of the apostles, storing up the offering because not everyone was present. Let us take an agreed starting point, and one appropriate to the discourse: *God made heaven and earth* (Gen. 1: 1). For it is a starting point suitable for the things that are to be said, the first creation of the world, the first foundation of the creation. *God made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them* (Ps. 145: 6). To be brief, he brought all other things into existence by his word. He had the will, and neither endured labor nor suffered sweat, but had the nature of the things spoken of following upon his speaking. He made the whole creation, and at the end, the beauty of the creation: man. For just as our whole body, apart from the face, appears dead, so the whole visible creation, apart from the structure of man, is dead; and know how. The sun is bright, but it cannot explain itself; the moon is bright, but it did not teach its own phases, but the Word handed them down; the order of the stars is bright, but instruction handed down their rhythms; the sea is great, but human language handed down its depths. And there is nothing of the things that have come to be in the world that does not need an interpreter of the human voice. This makes even that which seems bad actually shown as bad, and that which is good shown as actually good. For the sight is often deceived and leads the mind astray; but reason, having entered in, reveals the nature, C brings out the power, interprets the teaching. Pay attention, therefore. God made the whole creation, and at the end of the creation he fashioned man *according to his image and likeness* (Gen. 1: 26), bestowing upon him an image, not the character of the body, but the original dignity, the discerning power, the being likened to the Creator by virtues. Man, therefore, was made in the image and likeness of God; but he extended that likeness into immoderation. And do not think these things are strange to the problem set before us. For the things now being examined are the root of those things which are to be said. He made man in his own image and likeness. He wanted him to run toward a likeness of the master's dignity, yet with measure, sequence, and order. What I mean is this (for it is necessary to establish the point in question even from common examples): If any master among us has a servant and sees the servant imitating his self-control, he loves and honors him; but if the servant imitates the master's philanthropy, the master loves his possession; if he sees his servant at leisure in church, being devout, fasting, performing acts of mercy, the master loves the servant's good imitation. If, however, the servant pushes the imitation to immoderation, and begins to imitate the master's authority—commanding his fellow servants as a master, squandering property as a master—the imitation is no longer praiseworthy, but blameworthy. For the servant must imitate the master's gentleness, self-control, piety, and justice, not his authority or mastery. Therefore, having received the imitation of God's goodness, man extended the measure of the imitation to immoderation. And he desired from then on to be a zealous imitator of God, not according to virtue, but according to authority. For with this the serpent deceived him, saying: *In the day you eat, you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil* (Gen. 3: 5). But God praises the imitation when it has measure; whereas if it goes beyond the measure, the imitator is under reproach. And whence this? He says: *Let us make man in our image and likeness* (Gen. 1: 26). The apostles were likened to God, and they were not blamed; the prophets were likened to God, and they were not rejected. They became imitators of philanthropy, of mercy, of justice, of piety. Someone was likened to God according to divine authority, and he was immediately punished. Isaiah says to a certain tyrant in Babylon who had gone mad with god-likeness: *You said in your mind: I will ascend into heaven, and I will sit upon the high mountains that are to the north; I will ascend above the clouds, and I will set my throne above the stars, and I will be like the Most High; but now you shall descend to Hades, to the foundations of the earth* (Isa. 14: 15). Do you see how he punishes the one who was lifted up by pride? For what envy was there in becoming like the Creator, if it was in the image and likeness of the one who created him? But his immoderate boldness did not have a measure of the likeness. For he abandoned the likeness of virtue, and ran to the likeness of masterly authority. So too, regarding David, he says: *I found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my heart* (Acts 13: 22). Behold the likeness according to the image! Because David’s mind was looking toward God, was full of gentleness, filled with humility, mindful of justice, and clinging to philanthropy. *I found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my heart.* And he praised the one who had well imitated the heart of God, but he blamed—or rather, he also punished—another tyrant who imitated the heart of God not according to virtue, but according to mastery. D And God says through Ezekiel: *And you, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Because your heart was lifted up, and you said, I am God, and you are a man and not God, and you gave your heart as the heart of God; because of this, behold I will bring upon you alien pestilences from the nations, and they shall draw their swords against you and against the beauty of your knowledge; and, to be brief, he adds: And you shall die by the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea. Will you say, I am God, in the presence of those who are killing you?* (Ezek. 28: 2, 8-9). Do you see how the immoderation of the imitation comes under punishment? Man, therefore, having turned aside and slipped into an immoderate likeness, was found stripped of what he had. For having reached beyond his power,
desiring that which was against the will of God, he did not merely fail to receive, but even lost what he already possessed. And just as an eye that enjoys the moderate ray of the sun rejoices and is illuminated, but if it should wish to gaze upon the orb itself, it not only fails to receive light but loses what it has: so human nature, desiring what exceeds its power against the will of God, is darkened in its mind. Man fell, therefore, and many wounds followed the fall: idolatry, fornication, adultery, avarice, and whatever is similar. Man, therefore, fell with a great fall, and through negligence lost the character of the divine likeness: A *For he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was made like unto them* (Ps. 48:13). The creation, too, was divided; a part cast off the bridle, and a part remained in servitude, as I said in the previous teaching. The lions plotted against the image, the serpents bit, and the whole nature of brute beasts raged against its master. Because the creation saw that he himself had violated the law of God, it also wished to shake off his rule. The sun wished not to rise for the transgressor, the moon wished to obscure its rays, the stars wished for their labor not to shine, the fountains wished to deny their streams, the rivers their beds, the meadows their flowers, the paradise its delight—all wished to deny man, because he had denied his own Master. I know that the discourse is deep and veiled, but for the sake of the faithful and those who sit at the table of the Church, the things of the divine Scripture must be explored. B The creation served man, not as one being worthy, but by God’s command, so that the image might not be insulted, even if it had transgressed. Therefore, when every creature was rebelling, God commanded—not that it should break its bridle, but that the sun should emit its rays, the earth its fruits, the sea its fish and merchandise, and the stars their splendor. The Apostle, explaining this view, says: *For the expectation of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope; because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God* (Rom. 8:19–21). That is: when God saw man fallen, and the creation refusing to serve that ungrateful one, He constrained it even against its will, and commanded the sun to rise, and the earth to bear its fruits, and not to deny the transgressor, even though he was ungrateful, but to show the immense benefit of the common Master, promising the creation that it would be renewed together with corruptible man: as if God were saying to the creation: C "Because the image has fallen, and through the transgression has slipped, and through disobedience is corrupted, suffer the corrupt to serve corruption; so that when I shall renew My image, the corrupt man, I shall with him renew you, the creation, and make you a participant in his glory. You were drawn into his misery; with his glory you shall rise again." What is it, brother, that the creation avoids being the master of man? For it says: *The creature was made subject to vanity* (Ps. 58:6). To what vanity? From the time man was turned away from God, this is called vanity, as David says: *Verily all is vanity, every man living.* Every man is vain who, having left God, chases after vain things.
Concerning the angels set over the nations
D There were angels in every place set over the nations, as the Scripture testifies, saying: *When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the angels of God* (Deut. 32:8): that is, God distributed the climates of the world to individual angels; for example, He entrusted this prefecture to one angel, another to another; so that they might curb the inanimate nature of the sun, moon, stars, earth, and seas for the benefit of mortal man. Furthermore, the angels were afflicted because they were ministering to unworthy men; they grieved, seeing the dignity of the Master betrayed, and idols worshipped; the angels were cut to the heart, thinking that there exists a different god and different beings to whom thanks should be given. The earth was bearing wine, and the altars were receiving libations; the earth was bearing the abundance of fruits, and these were offered to idols. The angels could not bear this, seeing those things which did not exist being worshipped in the place of Him who truly is. A Hence is resolved another question, which is moved in the prophet. *There came unto him*, he says, *the angel Gabriel. And he saith unto him: Daniel, O man of desires, from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, to afflict thyself in the sight of thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words; but the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me: but Michael, the prince of your people, came to my help* (Dan. 10:12). B This, then, is the angel who resisted Gabriel, and why did he resist him? It was said to you recently, brothers, that God had distributed individual climates to the angels for the custody of the whole world. Therefore, to the holy Gabriel, sent from heaven, there resisted the angel who had been appointed over the kingdom of the Persians, that is, over Persia. But the question is asked: if he was sent by God, and if Gabriel also was sent by God, why does the one resist the other? For if the one angel sent were of a different master, he would be right to resist him; but if it is the same God who had established him over that nation, and sent the other to the prophet, why does he resist him? Pay diligent attention. The whole world was full of idolatry; but the angels who had been appointed over the nations were indignant and aggrieved, seeing God being despised and idols being worshipped. C Furthermore, when the people went down captive into Babylon, Daniel was seen preaching God, the three children were seen praising God, when the flame was trodden down, and impiety was dissolved: when the lions were bridled, and the infidels were repressed. The angel, therefore, the prince of the kingdom of the Persians, was rejoicing and exulting because God was being preached in his parts. The angel saw the Chaldeans, who once worshipped fire and honored idols, praising God because of the miracles performed, and he was rejoicing, seeing his region, once infamous for impiety, now converted to piety. The angel saw Nebuchadnezzar the king saying: "Sedrach, Misach, Abdenago, servants of the Most High God" (Dan. 3). D He was praying to God, so that now that those determined seventy years were fulfilled, the people might be recalled from captivity; and Gabriel had been sent to declare to him that the people were now to be brought back from captivity, and were to return to their own land, that is, into Jerusalem: the angel of the Persian empire resists Gabriel, grieving that the land committed to him, having left piety, would return to impiety: he was grieving that his land would repeat its ancient idolatry; and he was resisting him, not by fighting, but by bringing reason to the contrary. "Why," he was saying, "are you so anxious to recall the people? For what harm did they suffer in captivity? When they were in their own region, they worshipped idols; and after they came here, they glorify God, and from this they have received utility, and were useful to these people. What prevents them from remaining in their midst? In what has the people been harmed, so that you should be eager to reduce it from captivity? You see God being worshipped, the nations being enlightened, and you contend to remove such a great benefit? Why were you sent?" "I was sent," he says, "to lead the people back into their own country." "Which country," he says, "which they profaned with slaughters when they were in Jerusalem?" Does not Jeremiah accuse them thus, saying: *According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda, and a wickedness thou didst make of the streets of Jerusalem to Baal* (Jer. 2:28 and 11:13). Six hundred times then they were being visited with the goods of God, and they did not withdraw from wickedness; now they are visited with six hundred evils, and they do not withdraw from God. There was, therefore, a discussion, not of some evil soul against a good one; for it does not say, "he fought," but, "he resisted." For often there is a discussion between the just and the upright. Humaneness sometimes resists the law, and the law humaneness: the law punishes the sinner, the king's humaneness often spares the sinner. This is a struggle, not of an adversary against an adversary, but of a kinsman against a kinsman. A For neither is justice outside of kindness, nor kindness outside of justice. But let these things be said in passing; now let us return to the subject. When, therefore, the creation was in such a state, and was indignant against the transgressor; when the angels were bearing ill the ungrateful people after such benefits; when the whole world was afflicted by such iniquity (for what the tree or other material suffers, this the earth suffers, according to what is said: And
A God saw the earth, and it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way. He saw the earth, and it was corrupt) — thus did the prophets announce to the world the age to come, which was to raise up the fallen world and to renew the corrupted image. And let no one imagine that there are many different cycles of speech, or that the meanings are tossed hither and thither; for all these things are brought back to a single power. If we do not first show how the world was corrupted, we cannot show how it was renewed. The whole earth was therefore corrupted, the heaven obscured, and the whole creation darkened. The creation was not as God had made it from the beginning; the heaven was not shining with stars, the earth was not abounding in fruits, the sea was not [busy] with trade. For the transgressor entered in and defiled the earth, defiled the heaven, the air, the sea, the springs, the rivers; he defiled everything with his blasphemies: the heaven with blasphemy, the air with shameful sounds, the earth with unlawful murders, the sea with pirates and robbers, the springs and rivers with lawless idolatries. For fountains and rivers and paradises and trees and the whole creation were being deified; and nothing so defiles creation as its being deified. The whole creation, therefore, was darkened. The Savior of the world enters in—or rather, is proclaimed by the apostles—that He will come to renew all things. Nor did the apostles only, but the prophets also foretold that Christ was coming. Why? So that no one might suppose that God, just like a man, when He is at a loss at the first remedy, devises a second; and when He fails in this, comes to a third; and when He misses that, attempts a fourth. So that no one might imagine this, the prophets foretold the One who was to come, in order to show that God does not find what is advantageous by deliberating, but foreknew all things from the beginning. We humans deliberate, and if we fail in our first attempt, we proceed to another; but God is not so. Rather, He gave the law, the prophets, and after these the Gospel, not learning what was advantageous in time, but knowing from the beginning that it was not otherwise possible for the creation to exist and remain unless Christ appeared. And we humans, when we see diseases, then devise remedies; but God, before the wounds of our formation, foreknows the medicine of salvation. Many say: “Did God not know, then, that Adam would sin?” I say this: that He not only knew this, but [He knew] before the transgression that Christ would raise him up because of the dispensation; and He did not first see the fall, if He had not first devised the resurrection. But He first proposed the medicine of the resurrection, and then permitted the man to enter into the experience of death, that he might learn what he enjoys for his own sake, and what he obtains through God. And just as in Egypt He first brought the years of plenty, having stored up the years of plenty as a medicine for the famine, and then brought on the years of famine—and the help of the medicine anticipated the nature of the wound—so before Adam was fashioned, before the lawless of his offspring appeared, before the just of his offspring were born, and the prophets of his offspring, God foreknew that it was not possible for this image to stand without being renewed by Christ. In Adam, God saw Paul, He saw Peter. He did not see Adam being formed in paradise and about to be cast out; but He saw in him Paul preaching piety and being caught up into paradise, and Peter entrusted with the keys of heaven; and He saw all things in the first man. For the fruits are in the root.
4. Grant me, then, to be as if in a dialogue with God for a little while, and to introduce God, as if using a dramatic personification, and speaking with His own Son. And let no one think [B this statement is unscriptural. For just as God, in making man, C used the Only-Begotten as a counselor and co-worker (for it says: Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness), it was fitting that the Son also should say to the Father: “Await the end.” Do not say, “This man conjectures concerning God, not being present there; how does he know these things?” If the end does not correspond to the thought, judge me as a slanderer. Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness. He spoke as the Creator; He answered as the foreknower: “If, then, Adam sins (for he will sin), is our creation slandered?” Conceive of the Father saying these things to the Son, or the Son to the Father. For the counsel is indivisible, just as the essence is undivided. “But Adam sins, he transgresses, he dies, and through him all men perish, and our formation is slandered as having been made badly.” Again, the counsel: “But it is necessary to define the remedy before all things. For it is necessary for you, my Only-Begotten, my Word, the effulgence of my glory, it is necessary for you, if at all you provide for the formation which we made working together with each other, it is necessary for you to put on the man who is being corrupted; you must take apostles, so that just as the devil used the serpent as a minister and a weapon for deception, so may you also use your formation as a minister for benevolence, and renew the one who has fallen.” “But there will be,” he says, “many inventors of impious doctrines. For the godless error of the Epicureans arises; another heresy arises which says that the things of this life have no providence; another heresy arises which says that the body is a god. Many become teachers of error; who, then, will resolve these wicked things?” I spoke these things in a figure, in order that at the end I might seal the thought with the apostolic voice. What then? Is this the garment which God the Word takes? Must it run through the ends under heaven and enlighten all? “Not so,” he says, “but you shall fulfill the divine dispensation for me; you shall have the apostles as heralds of the divine word; you shall have Paul preaching; you shall have Peter taking possession of Rome; you shall have the apostles participating with us in the dispensation.” These things were said before Adam was formed. First were outlined the things concerning the flesh of Christ, and the things concerning the apostles, and then Adam was fashioned. Whence is this? Hear Paul saying: “The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations; and, Blessed be God, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, having predestined us unto adoption.” And elsewhere he says concerning himself and those with him, *whom He foreknew to be conformed to the image of His Son*. And not only was he predestined and chosen, but even the grace, which Paul received after many generations, is so enumerated as though he had received it before the ages. Whence is this? He says to Timothy: “My child Timothy, suffer with the Gospel according to the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal times.” He chose us before the foundation of the world, He predestined us before the ages, He granted us grace before the ages; and all these things agree that before the construction of man, the dispensation of the Savior was foreseen and predestined. But I know that I am speaking among friends of piety; yet sometimes also among spies, who do not look toward the benefits of what is preached, but rather set themselves to see how they may lay hold of the speaker—the manner of whom I do not hate, but rather pity. Nevertheless, according to the Apostle, *Because of the false brothers brought in, who come in to spy out our freedom*, let us strengthen the thought. For an enemy having gone out can say: “How great a theology! He introduced God deliberating and saying, ‘Since, then, many become teachers of error, what shall be?’, and the Father saying to the Son, as though one were at a loss and the other were teaching him!” These things—when the Scriptures instruct concerning God—they never utter words fitting to the divine power, but [only those] appropriate to our weakness. For does God sit upon a human tribunal and say: “And now, you men of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard: what should I have done, and did not do?”—is this the voice of one speaking, or one [truly] at a loss? But does it not, when he says to Isaiah: “Whom shall I send, or who will go to this people?”—He speaks as one hesitant, but the minister is ignorant? For the things spoken of God must be judged not by the infirmity of the hearers, but by ecclesiastical doctrine. We, however,
A have as our aim to show those things which were decreed regarding Christ before Adam, the foretold apostles, and the grace of the Gospel established before eternal ages. Attend diligently. For one word neglected can introduce calumny into what is said. God saw not only Adam sinning in Paradise, but also the Savior, the Lord appearing in the flesh, and preparing a way for virtue, and drawing all men to obedience. God saw the rib of Adam taken and transformed into a woman, and he foresaw that Christ’s side would bring forth for us mystical gifts, water and blood: the former of which is the symbol of the laver; the latter, the pledge of the mysteries. And He did not deem this wound so miserable, as, contemplating the remedy, He judged it blessed. There, a woman [came] from a man unto iniquity; here, a man [came] from a woman unto salvation. There, a side brings forth the cause of death; here, a side brings the pledge of incorruption. There, a serpent on a tree; here, Christ on a cross. There, food that invites death; here, food that destroys death. You know the things that pertain to the faithful; now know the mysteries. There, they looked badly and saw that they were naked; we now look piously and see that we are clothed: there, an aspect and nakedness; here, clothing and illumination. There, garments of skin covering their shame; here, the garment of glory covering our infirmity, the body of Christ, the garment of the King Himself; for "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). There, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall return" (Gen. 3:19); here, the renewed earth makes man heavenly, promising not earth, but a kingdom. There, a flaming sword keeping Adam away; here, tongues of fire from heaven illuminating Adam. There, he is cast out of paradise; here, the keys of the heavens are entrusted to him. God foresaw things future before they were present. And just as today, before we draw water, a pitcher is prepared, and before the waters flow, it is called a "flowing place," not because the water is flowing, but because it is about to flow: so God predetermined those things which were to be formed in Christ, and knew that in Christ all things would be renewed. And long before He begins, He is carried by the heavens, according to that word: "Incline, O Lord, the heavens, and descend" (Ps. 145:5). He penetrated the heavens, which He sanctified; He traversed the air, that He might sanctify it, defiled by obscene songs; He treads the earth, that He might sanctify it, polluted by slaughters; He treads the waves of the sea, that He might sanctify the polluted waters; He is baptized in the Jordan, that He might make the nature of rivers holy; He finds Adam lying in the sepulcher, and takes on his image, and Christ becomes both after Adam, and the renovation of Adam: how, however, hear. He assumes the form which He had fashioned in paradise: He adorned it with all things contrary [to the former state], giving it provisions for salvation, contrary to the life which he had led in paradise. In paradise Adam was deceived because of pleasure; the flesh of Christ is crowned in fasting: in paradise the first struggle, in the wilderness the second battle is fought against the devil. Christ therefore comes to renew this work, crowning it with all kinds of virtues, and enters as mediator between God and man: He comes to announce to the world that the fallen image is being renewed, rising again, being saved. He could not have announced this unless He Himself were the Mediator. For just as a subject does not dare to request a promise from someone who is worthy of trust and promises something, unless he has a mediator; because God was invisible, and the world visible, God gave a Mediator worthy of trust. For the "Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). B For those things which require a middle party, there cannot be a mediator. Since, therefore, Christ is the Mediator of God and men, He had to be found related to both God and men, so that He might appear as a certain middle economy, joined to God by divinity, and united to men by humanity. What then does He do? Because He first teaches, then renews, and becomes Mediator and Sponsor; He sounds forth the things that are of God to men, and the things that are of men to God. For because the race of men was hostile to God because of transgression; neither did man believe God, nor God man, regarding the reconciliation of the fallen, as if He were saying to men: "Do not hasten to believe that there is resurrection: I am the sponsor of this matter, I assume your flesh, and I deliver it to death: if I do not raise it up, do not believe me." He is a sponsor to men regarding God; as if to say: "In me you have a man; I renew him, I will bring it about that he renounces error, and acknowledges the truth: accept me as a sponsor for men, that they too may accept me as a sponsor of your power."
5 Therefore, that Christ is a mediator, Scripture has declared; that He is a sponsor and a surety, where do we find it, lest we be seen to speak of ourselves in the Church? If I speak of myself, for what reason do I speak? If I preach the things that are of God, if I interpret the things that are of the Spirit, accept my doctrine. That Jesus is a sponsor, Paul says this: "By so much is Jesus made a surety of a better testament" (Hebr. 7:22; cf. 8:6). Behold, He is a sponsor of God to men, and of men to God. He said that He would raise us up, and He raises us; He said that He would honor us with immortality, and He honors us. When He fashioned Adam, He gave no sponsorships; without sponsorships He gave him heaven and earth: He did not promise the earth, He did not pledge paradise; all other things, which He had not promised, He gave: and will He not give those things which He promised with a sponsorship? Scripture calls the Gospel sometimes the New Testament, sometimes a better testament, sometimes the second, sometimes the eternal. Because one name cannot declare the whole power, by diverse names it declares the power of the Gospel. But particularly Paul, who had Christ speaking in himself, calls the Gospel a New Testament, as one that renews that Old one. For that which is new signifies an unaccustomed and inaccessible nature: it is called new for the difference from the older; it is called better for the difference from the lesser; second, for the distinction from the first; eternal, for the difference from the temporary. It is called a New Testament according to blessed Jeremiah saying: "And it shall be in the last days, says the Lord, I will dispose for you a new testament" (Jer. 31:31); and the Savior, delivering the mystery, says: "This is my blood of the new testament" (Matt. 26:28). Behold the new testament. And elsewhere He calls it "new" on account of the new and blooming preaching. And Paul says: "You have come to mount Sion, and to myriads of angels, and to the church of the firstborn, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new testament" (Hebr. 12:22-24). When he says new, he makes the first old (Hebr. 8:13). Elsewhere he calls it a better testament with these words: "But now He has obtained a better ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better testament. For if that first had been faultless, there would not have been a place sought for a second" (Ibid. v. 6-7). Behold the first and the second: where is the eternal? Hear Paul saying: "Now the God of peace, who brought out of the earth the great pastor of the sheep, and in the blood of the eternal testament" (Hebr. 13:20). Because the first testament was temporary, this here is eternal. And elsewhere he says: "I will dispose for you a new eternal testament, the faithful mercies of David" (Isai. 55:3). A new testament, recent, first, second, better, eternal. Of these testaments Jesus is the sponsor. When, therefore, man is to be renewed, the heaven becomes new, not taken away, but renewed as a new creature; the sun is new, the moon is new, the stars are new, which receive addition and increase. For the prophet says: "There shall be a new heaven and a new earth" (Ibid. 65:17). Behold the creature is being renewed, and He who promised does not lie. As much increase as man receives, so much receive the elements. Why this? Isaiah says: "For the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the moon as the sun" (Ibid. 30:26). Have you seen how God did not deny the things promised, but renewed the creature? But the Prince of the renovation is Christ. D Looking at this sentiment, heretics object to that [verse]: "The firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1:15); not understanding that here the discourse is not about the creature [that was] made, but about the creature [that is] renewed. Which is that renewed creature? Hear Paul saying: "If [index: entries preserved]
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (2 Cor. 5. 17)." And in order to show that he is called the firstborn of the renewed creature, he adds: "The firstborn from the dead, that he might have the preeminence in all things (Col. 1. 18)," A of those things which are being renewed, those which are being called unto incorruption, those which are being raised from the dead. "That he might have the preeminence in all things," not according to his divinity (for it is an insult to God to be called first, the expected honor is an insult; for in the divine and uncreated nature there is not a first and a second, but all things possess a living beginning, a beginning with no beginning, a beginning eternal, incomprehensible, ineffable; but among us, if Christ holds preeminence in comparison with Paul, if in comparison with Peter, our hope is empty, our faith is vain, if Christ holds preeminence over these in divinity), but he holds preeminence in humanity, as having renewed Adam, as having given life to the inhabited world. Therefore he says, "The firstborn from the dead, that he might have the preeminence in all things."
And how is he firstborn from the dead, I ask, let us inquire. For if I pass over the word unexamined, the soul, being inquisitive, B will set its own arguments against it, and thinks it has strong ones. How, it says, is Christ the firstborn of the dead, seeing that even before his coming Elijah raised the son of the [widow of the] land, Elisha also raised the son of the Shunammite, the Savior himself raised Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow? If, indeed, both in the Old and in the New [Testament] dead were raised, how is Christ the firstborn of the dead? What then? Those, even if they were raised before Christ, all died again having tasted the resurrection; but Christ, having risen, does not fall under death, and for this reason he is the Author, as having risen and no longer dying. And Paul says: "For Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him (Rom. 6. 9)." Do you see the one who has the preeminence in all things? Do you see the one who renewed our race through his own dispensation? Thus, at the end, having taken up the human being, C he led him up into heaven and seated him at the right hand of God. Oh, our evil and foolish heart! Christ came to us, he gave us the Spirit from himself, and he took up our body, and the exchange took place, and our ingratitude insults the benefit! He took the creation from us, and seated it at the right hand of God; we received the Spirit from him, and we insulted him by degrading him to the rank of creature and servitude? O miserable and wretched man, if Christ says to you on that day, "I honored your body with immortality, and you dragged my Spirit down to the nature of a creature!" Do you see the mortal being raised, do you see it fellow-seated [on the throne], do you see it above every principality and power and might and dominion, and are you not ashamed? God honors what is ours, and we do not honor what is his?
6. But I know the heretical wickedness warring against the truth; it says, I know that this body was taken up into the heavens, D but not so that it might be honored, but so that we might have an advocate above, interceding with God for us. For this reason senseless tongues and untrained souls were saying in the marketplace: the holy things are being degraded, I know not how. For I will not repeat the word of the blasphemy, I will speak the thought. "You, Christ," they say, "pray for us to God, and intercede for us"; and they take a statement from the Apostle, not having learned the meaning. Did not the Apostle say, they claim, "Christ, who died, yea rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us (Rom. 8. 34)?" Did we ourselves invent this? Did we slander the divine things? Paul said Christ intercedes for us. They do not pay attention to what intercession is, that there is much difference between supplication and intercession. If it were the same to intercede and to ask, Paul would not have said: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made (1 Tim. 2. 1)." Supplication is said when one asks God for a matter; prayer is said when one praises God; thanksgiving is said when one gives thanks to God for the things he has received; intercession is said when one intercedes with God against those who do injustice, 698 provoking him to vengeance. And that interceding is not to supplicate, but to ask and to receive an answer, the Old Testament testifies, saying: "And God said to Elijah the prophet, 'What do you here, Elijah?'" God asks the prophet; the prophet answers saying: "I have been very jealous for the Lord God Almighty: that the children of Israel have forsaken thee; thy altars they have thrown down, and thy prophets they have slain with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life (3 Kings 19. 10. 14)." There was no supplication here, there was no prayer, but questioning and answering, and an intercession happened. And how, hear Paul saying: "Or know ye not what the Scripture saith of Elijah? how he intercedeth with God against Israel (Rom. 11. 2)?" Therefore, intercession is not supplication, but the prophet's force reporting to God the things which have been dared. Since, therefore, the apostles were in danger among the nations being dragged by rulers and governors, plotted against by the Jews, the Apostle prepared them to despise all things, both persecution and dragging and death, as if comforting them, he says: Even if you do not say anything against those who do you injustice, there is one who intercedes for you, he who took the creature from you. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us (Rom. 8. 33-34)." If he intercedes, how does he sit? Or does the one who intercedes not intercede while standing? Did you see anyone interceding in a manner befitting a slave, and sitting at the right hand of the ruler? But for this reason, he says, he prefixes the dignity, saying: "Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us," as if he were saying: Do you have need to worry about what is happening? Pay attention to the preaching of virtue; do not busy yourself, and say: "Lord, how much we suffer, we are driven, we are persecuted"; you have the one who speaks there, you have the one who intercedes. The Son intercedes with the Father, not according to an inferior rank, but as a Son to a Father saying certain things: "Those who believe in us are suffering injustice, are being persecuted, are being driven." In order to make the accusation worthy of belief, he introduces the Son interceding. Thus also the Savior says: "Do you think that I will accuse you? There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust (John 5. 45)." Is the Son less than you because he intercedes with the Father? If, therefore, you see God interceding to man against the unbelievers, what will you do? Hear the Lord saying to Jeremiah: "Hast thou seen what the backsliding daughter of Judah hath done to me? She hath forsaken me, and gone after gods (Jer. 3. 6)." Be it so; a man intercedes to God. Why should God intercede to man? And elsewhere: "And now, O man of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard: what could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it (Isai. 5. 3-4)?" Thus Christ, as long as he was fulfilling the dispensation in the flesh, was both priest, and offered supplications and prayed to the Father according to the incarnate dispensation; but since he ascended into the heavens, he sits only being glorified, not supplicating, not interceding, but if he even intercedes, it is as a son to a father, since God also interceded with the prophet. For this reason Paul says, to show that Christ does not stand above as a priest offering for himself and the people, but he sits, saying: "For such an high priest became us, who is set down at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, above every principality and power; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's (Hebr. 7. 26-27; 8. 1)." Why then do they rave against piety, if he had no need? Do you impose necessity upon the one who is above all necessity? Again Paul adds: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (Hebr. 9. 24)." He did not say, to be a suppliant; for he appeared once, not many times. And again, "Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebr. 9. 25-26)." And if indeed other priests stand daily ministering and offering the same sacrifices; Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool (Hebr. 10. 11-13). Does he not intercede then? He sits; do you see the benefit?